Archaeological investigation of the eastern extensions of the Karnak Temple using ground‐penetrating radar and magnetic tools

Abstract

Egyptologists have suggested there might be a hidden extension of the Karnak Temple, located in the Luxor governorate of Egypt. They believe that the temple contains some buried sections on its northern and eastern sides. During January and September 2002, ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic surveys were carried out on an 80 × 40 m area near the eastern gate. The GPR data did not give a clear picture of some of the buried features. A clearer identification of the hidden features was accomplished by interpretation of the magnetic data using the analytic signal approach. Our study has revealed the presence of coffin‐ and tomblike structures built of mud bricks. Limestone blocks were also detected, which may be attributable to destroyed pillars or statues. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Measurement and Analysis of Depth in Archaeological Geophysics: Tests at the Biesterfeldt Site, USA

“…Finally, depths may be estimated by a technical analysis of some types of geophysical maps (primarily magnetic and gravity, but also conductivity and resistivity) that were measured at the surface (Dobrin and Savit, 1988;Blakely, 1995;Radhakrishna Murthy, 1998); this analysis depends on the fact that geophysical anomalies become broader where features are deeper (more exactly, lateral gradients at the edges of those anomalies become lower relative to the amplitudes of the anomalies). Depth analysis of magnetic data from archaeological sites has been done by Ralph (1965), Dittrich and Koppelt (1997), Neubauer and Eder-Hinterleitner (1997), Eppelbaum et al (2001), Cucarzi et al (2001) and Abbas et al (2005).…”

Magnetic and seismic investigations of historic features in the Suchon area, Kongju, Korea

“…Its application (Figure 4) to the magnetometer data led to the 'sharpening' of the magnetic anomalies of the near-surface sources, showing a dipole polarity (e.g. B, C and D), and reducing the total magnetic intensities of Figure 2 due to the decrease in the wavelengths (Abbas et al, 2005). Some additional small anomalies in the northern part of the study area were identified that might be dispersed pottery of shallow origin, emphasizing the possibility of finding cultural relics at that area.…”

Multidisciplinary investigations at Stalag Luft III allied prisoner‐of‐war camp: The site of the 1944 “great escape,” Zagan, Western Poland

“…Despite limited access to metallic objects by the POWs (Brickhill, 1950), it was hoped that there might be enough metal in the entrance shaft, storage chamber, or tunnel to be detected. The magnetic method is probably the land-based geophysical tool most frequently used by archaeologists (e.g., Abbas et al, 2005;Abdallatif et al, 2005). In our study, proton precession magnetometer equipment was employed to acquire magnetic anomaly data.…”

“…Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigations of archaeological sites are now commonplace (e.g., Baker et al, 1997;Abbas et al, 2005), as near-surface electrical and magnetic property contrasts can be rapidly acquired and directly viewed during acquisition of high-resolution, two-dimensional profiles across a study site. (See Leckebusch [2003] for a useful overview of the GPR theory and archaeological applications.)…”